I bought my E37S used (about half-price of new, including new coated burrs and small hopper), and while it can be used as a single-doser we use it on-demand and change coffee about once a week (when the 500 gram ābag runā is finished). For my use case, itās the simplest possible workflow: fill the hopper with the dayās consumption, purge 4-5 grams in the morning (if I remember to do itā¦) and Iām done. The rest of the time, just put the portafilter in when I want a coffee, and grind in using timer.
I check the timed dose every now and then, and itās usually within 0.5 grams (3-4 beans) of what I want (14 grams for a single milk drink or double espresso, 17 grams for two milk drinks - not ideal, but I canāt get the hang of the single basket). If I change coffee, the first thing is to recalibrate timing, but then they stay constant over the 5-8 days the bag is in.
We tend to drink medium+ roasts, so they have fewer ādelicateā notes. I canāt really taste that much of a difference between a coffee ground on the Ceado and one ground on the Mazzer Omega (hand-powered, 47 mm conical) - which may also be down to my ability to actually taste any differenceā¦ or being bothered by it.
This said, either everyone has been exceedingly polite, or it does make very nice coffeeā¦
If you are planning to use it as a single-doser, in my opinion, however, itās not worth buying the Ceado. For the same money, you can get the Olympia SD or the Honne that @tompoland raves about (and I trust his judgement). If you want an excellent hopper-fed grinder, then different story (and still Iād buy it used).
FWIW, I suspect much the same applies to a Mazzer Major - with two significant differences: 1) many more second-hand Majors available, so prices are much lower, and 2) a lot of them are old(er) and with the mechanical doser, so they may need to be modified. The new Ceados (post 2017) donāt really need much modding to make them single-dose capable.
FWIW 2, if you want a large flat with a hopper, as well as the Ceado and the Mazzer you can sometimes find Fiorenzato F83s which are quite cheap (as they havenāt got the rep of Mazzer), but are built by Mazzer.